Going Deep: 20 Classic Sports Stories

by Gary Smith, Sports Illustrated

A collection of essays by the award-winning Sports Illustrated writer highlights twenty of his most powerful pieces that range from "Shadow of a Nation," the story of a young Crow Indian basketball player and his efforts to escape the reservation, to "Blindsided by History," a saga of football, racism, and segregation.

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction

384 pages, Hardcover

First published September 16, 2008

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Going Deep is a masterclass in sports writing and long-form journalism. Across twenty essays, Gary Smith demonstrates why he is regarded as one of Sports Illustrated’s most accomplished storytellers. These pieces go far beyond wins and losses, using sports as a lens to explore identity, race, history, ambition, and the human cost of competition.

What distinguishes this collection is Smith’s narrative depth. Stories like “Shadow of a Nation” and “Blindsided by History” reveal how sports intersect with systemic injustice, cultural memory, and personal survival. Athletes are not treated as symbols or heroes, but as fully realized people shaped by forces larger than the game itself.

Smith’s prose is immersive, empathetic, and precise. Each essay unfolds with the patience of literary nonfiction, allowing emotional weight and historical context to emerge organically. Going Deep is not just for sports fans it is for readers who value powerful storytelling, social insight, and journalism at its highest level.

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

i got to know gary smith when i was living in charleston and i've never met a more humble and unassuming guy who has also been called "the best magazine writer working today". he writes about sports, and that will scare some people off who might think sports are culturally shallow, but for smith, sports is the tangential connection to his examination of the human condition. he gets in deep, without judgement to his subjects and its the kind of thing you read and want to be more compassionate and more appreciative. great writer.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gary Smith is an amazing writer and these stories will all move you in some way. It can't be read like a novel. The author's writing style is unwavering and the pull on your emotions can become cloying and tedious if taken all together. It needs to be read one story at a time, put down, and picked back up on another day to truly appreciate. ( kind of like a box of chocolates....with apologies with Forrest G.)

[Peter Wentworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each story is like a track on The Clash's London Calling. Diverse, some catchy, some sytlistically mesmerizing, all speak directly to a swell of strong emotions, but never in a manipulatively way.

Gary is in many ways the best kind of critic, although he's a journalist. He has the ability to make the fan appreciate an aspect of the game that was previously overlooked.

[Dean Wood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of stories is like sports itself: bizarre, funny, sad and inspiring.